Over 35s 2013-14

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Friday 23rd May 2014

The 3rd final of the Championships, the Over 35s, was played between Mark Brown and Andrew Codrai. The two had not played each other for some time, and both had had some good wins on route to the final, so it was anyone’s guess how it would turn out. Andrew made the early running, winning the first. But there after the games alternated and it was a nervous Andrew who served for the match at 8-6 in the 5th! This was Andrew's 5th win of the title putting him into the hall of fame (check out the tournament pages of the club's website).

Thursday 8th May 2014

Thursday night saw the postponed O35 clash between Bob Broadbridge and Mike Willis. Bob simply had too much fire-power for Mike, pushing him deep with hard, low shots, and then capitalising on drops when Mike was found hanging back. Every rally was hard-fought, but ultimately Bob came out on top, 3-0.

Wednesday 7th May 2014

Wednesday saw the start of the Over 35s draw. Defending champion Andrew Codrai took on his former coach, Nigel Sanders in a 3 game thriller. Fortunately (for Andrew) this time the pupil had become the master and he moved on to the next round.

Meanwhile Ady James and Tony Brown were having their own tussle. In this case it was Adrian’s superior shots and experience that allowed him to progress (3-0), with Tony moving into the Plate.

Nigel Lush and Natalie Morant then embarked on what turned out to be the most closely contested match of the night. #3 seed Nigel took an early 2 game lead, but Natalie fought back and claimed the 3th. Nigel held his nerve in the 4th though and took the victory 3-1.

Tim Dickins and Mark Brown played out a thrilling match, ultimately ending 3-0 to Mark. As with so many of these matches, the score line did not reflect how close the match was, with Marks good length and fitness only eventually undoing Tim’s shot variety.

The penultimate clash saw #4 seed James Wadley play Tim Hayes. Afterwards Tim described his efforts as “aimless” which was harsh. But it will be interesting to see how a recognition of the importance of good placement of the ball pans out in his plate matches.

Last up were #2 seed Russell Baker and Marcus Hewitt. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this match for a number of reasons; first, I’d never seen Marcus play before – and neither had Russell. The whole joy of these tournaments is new members get to see (and be seen by) other players and surely that is in the interests of all of us. But more than that, I loved seeing my arch rival Russell sweat as Marcus pushed him in so many of the rallies! Russell won 3-0, but Marcus acquitted himself very well.

Tuesday 6th May 2014

The final preliminary-round match was played this evening between Martin Sparshott and Chris Wright. Chris was nimble (even spritely) and that was after a match earlier, but his grace could not match Martin’s shot selection and accuracy. Martin won 3-0.

Monday 5th May 2014

18 entrants for the competition this year – a record in recent years – forced a pre-round. The only match of this evening saw Tim Dickins play Stuart Delmege. Neither had played each other before, and on the strength of the knock-up things looked like they’d be close. Tim had an array of shots, and Stuart was hitting the ball cleanly and purposefully, and was showing great movement. This carried on into the match. In a very nip-and-tuck first game, Stuart won out 9-7. Tim was anxious, hoping to win quick, but came out on-top in a similarly close 2nd game. The lead yo-yo’ed back and forth and the match went into a 5th. Stuart looked the stronger, but a string of very tight shots at the end handed a fantastic win to Tim. If all the matches are this close we’ll have a fantastic competition.